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Medicare’s payouts for surgery to lift drooping upper eyelids – a procedure known as blepharoplasty — have surged over the past decade, from $20 million in 2001 to $80 million by 2011, the center found after analyzing physician claims data.

Sorting through the data, CPI reporters Joe Eaton and David Donald found that 11 of the 20 highest billers in 2008 were Florida-based physicians.

“Among the top surgeons, the data show a South Florida doctor billed Medicare more than $800,000 in 2008 for about 2,200 eyelid lifts. That’s an average of six a day, including weekends. This same doctor was also a top biller in 2006 and 2007.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services restricted the center’s ability to name the physician, citing a 1979 federal court injunction, and Eaton said he was not allowed to name the city in which the physician practiced.

There can be legitimate medical reasons for blepharoplasty – some elderly people’s eyelids sag so severely it can restrict their vision, Eaton and Donald noted. But most experts said it was a clear case of abuse of the federal insurance program for people over 65.

“Ryan Stumphauzer, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida and founding member of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, put it more bluntly: ‘There is no way that is anything other than crap.'”

Medicare’s reimbursements for blepharoplasty are about $600 per eye. That’s only a third of what most facial plastic surgeons charge, said Dr. Anita Mandal, a board-certified facial plastic surgeon based in Palm Beach Gardens. She said if a patient’s goal is cosmetic, they may want to ask themselves why a surgeon would want to accept Medicare, which pays a third of the typical going rate.

“A plastic surgeon with a busy cosmetic practice, why would they want to take Medicare?” she asked. “When you’re dealing with your face, I think your focus should be on more than nitpicking about dollar amounts.”